THE LIMITATIONS OF NATO
SIR.-1 have read with astonishment and incredulity Mr. A. R. Nicholson's contribution to this correspon- dence. Of course, our nuclear weapons are 'dirty.' And if ours weren't, the Russians' would be. for they, at any rate, would not he operating 'among a friendly population.' Does Mr. Nicholson realise that the war- heads of NATO's standard atomic artillery are of the same order of destructiveness as the Hiroshima bomb? And the atomic bombs of our tactical air forces are of even greater destructive power? The nice little tactical campaign which Mr. Nicholson envisages would mean at least 1,000 Hiroshima' in Western Europe within the space of a few days. What is to be gained, by the people of Germany at least, from such a holocaust? And supposing one stray accidental missile landed in London, a not im- probable event in the circumstances, what would Mr. Nicholson then think of the merits of tactical nuclear war?
Tactical nuclear war is not a rational act any more than strategic nuclear war. It saves no one and nothing; it only destroys universally and impartially. —Yours faithfully,.
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